SNOW
Trip Start
Oct 24, 2005
1
76
150
Trip End
Ongoing
Kunming,
China
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
The rain persisted on the drive, and it must have been a fairly unfamiliar sight to our driver, who was not an old woman, but certainly drove like one. As such, the five hours turned into nearly seven, and we arrived in Kunming around dusk, to a steady rainfall. We grabbed our bags and made our way (in a very roundabout route) to the nearest bus stop
Snow
.When we'd last been in Kunming, we stayed at a great hotel recommended to us by a super lady we'd become acquainted with on Lonely Planet's Thorntree site. We loved the hotel, but the staff wasn't terribly helpful. Then, our internet stopped working and we asked for a refund. They refused and also demanded we return the two pencils we'd taken from the room (one was a chewed up nub, the other a blue and red colored pencil). Their behavior soured our opinion of the hotel, and we weren't planning to go back this time. We tried to find a bus to another hotel we had in mind, but were unsuccessful, so we went to a popular tourist favorite, The Camellia. They didn't have any rooms with double beds, and their prices were quite steep, but we were running out of options, so we took a look. I had heard the rooms were a bit run-down and that they seemed to be riding on their reputation, but I had no idea how true those statements were. We refused the room, swallowed our pride, and walked around the corner to our old hotel, which welcomed us with open arms. It proved to be a wise decision to return, as the hotel itself really is an excellent value.
The rain continued on throughout the night, and by morning, it had turned into snow. SNOW. Yes, that's right, in our attempt to leave the "frigid" Hanoi winter behind, we had retreated into full-on winter, complete with snow (incidentally, the weather in Hanoi has been unseasonably warm, so we really didn't have any reason to leave...). We later learned that this was the heaviest snowfall in southwest China in more than 100 years. Despite the snow, we tried to get out to the Bamboo Temple, a sight we had missed on our previous visit. I didn't want to go to the south station to take a minibus there, so I decided we'd instead take the city buses there
Snowy Palm Trees
. We got on the first, which took us to a main bus station. Once there, we confirmed the bus we needed to get on with the station staff, who assured us all we needed to do was change buses up the road. Our driver didn't tell us when to get off, as we had asked, but we seemed to be in the right place when we finally asked her (which we weren't). After much trudging through the wet and heavy snow, we found the right bus stop and waited for our ride. We got on and rode it all the way to another main bus station, where we were told we'd have to either: 1) walk 8 kilometers, 2) pay 20Y for a minibus, or 3) hire a taxi. Due to the weather, we chose option #4: get on another bus headed for the university and have lunch at Salvador's, an outstanding restaurant we'd happened upon during our previous visit that served up the best Mexican food we'd had in Asia thus far (save that made by me, of course).After a truly superb lunch and some Pu'er tea (the regional specialty), we stepped out of the restaurant and discovered the snow had ceased. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city (Konrad finally bought himself a spy glass he'd been eyeing for a few weeks), and ran into some of our Gorge trekking buddies who were headed to Vietnam that evening.
We had a heater in our hotel to keep us warm, but we didn't want that artificial stuff - we wanted the real deal. So, despite our fondness for Kunming, with visions of tank tops and beaches dancing in our heads, we planned to head further south the next day.
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